FAMILY LAW ARTICLES

Is Your Spouse Serving You Divorce Papers?

Your spouse just filed divorce papers, and now they’re trying to serve you with those documents. This is a very emotional time in anyone’s life. There’s so much on the line. There would be kids, property, support obligations, and it can be very frustrating emotionally. So, a lot of people have an instinct to avoid service or they want to avoid service by a number of different ways.

Well, I’m here to tell you that what you do now, can already impact your case going forward.

If you have any questions or would like to speak with a skilled attorney about a family law matter, contact Hartley, Lamas, Et Al today at 805-919-8346.

Transcript:
Your spouse just filed divorce papers, and now they’re trying to serve you with those documents. This is a very emotional time in anyone’s life. There’s so much on the line. There would be kids, property, support obligations, and it can be very frustrating emotionally.

So, a lot of people have an instinct to avoid service or they want to avoid service by a number of different ways. Well, I’m here to tell you that what you do now, can already impact your case going forward.

Hi, I’m Ben Vojtik. I’ve been working here at Hartley Lamas since 2010, and been a practicing attorney since 2018.

Avoiding Service in a Divorce

If you’re trying to avoid service, it is very likely that that’s going to show up in the court’s pleadings. The process server is going to file a declaration detailing every single attempt they made to serve you. And if they see that you’re at the house and hiding out, not coming to the door, that’s really all the court needs to really find that they made a good faith attempt to serve you, and to find that service was accomplished.

Now you’re in a position where you don’t have the documents you’re trying to serve you. You don’t know what the other person is asking for. You don’t know what’s going on calendar. And you don’t have the documents to show an attorney to actually get advice as to what’s going on in your case.

Additional Attorney’s Fees

Now, if the court were to find that you were frustrating service, then the court could also order you to pay the other party additional attorney’s fees, outside of that.

Domestic Violence, Child Custody & Visitation Implications

And in more extreme cases, more extreme events, like recently we have somebody pull a gun on a process server, tell them to get off the property and said that they weren’t going to accept service. Honestly, any one of those would be enough for the court to find that service was accomplished.

But that can also have impacts in domestic violence claims. Because this person is exhibiting a willingness to threaten violence with a gun, as well as custody visitation for obvious reasons.

Contact Us for Your Divorce Case

So, I understand that it’s an emotional time when you first start going through your divorce, it can be shocking, and there’s a lot at stake. But you need to be proactive, contact an attorney and start finding ways to secure and protect your custody and visitation rights, your property rights, and your support obligations.

So, if you find yourself in this situation, and you’re stressed and not sure what to do, I highly recommend reaching out to an attorney, and you can find our contact information below. Thank you.